1. Field of the Invention
This invention in general relates to agricultural harvesting. More particularly to installing a plastic cover over large individual bales of dry hay, in a time saving, automated fashion that will give excellent protection from the elements for an extended period of time.
2. Description of Related Art
In order to properly understand the background of large hay bales since their inception and their need for an efficient and practical covering to protect them from weather conditions when stored other than under a roof.
Large hay baling was introduced when a need was evident to harvest hay with less manpower in a more economical and efficient manner.
With this concept of harvest a new problem arose that had never been evident with other harvests, in which the hay was stored under cover.
Large bales were found to sustain a large degree of spoilage when stored outside and subject to the ravages of the elements. Thus arose the need for a protective covering that was not cost prohibitive to use and would fulfill the needs of protection, with speed and uniformity.
To further illustrate the need for covering, a midwest university's School of Agricultural has conducted spoilage and quality loss tests on bales that have been stored outside of a shelter. Results show that as much as twenty-five percent of the outer layer of hay will have spoiled to an extent that it has no feed value. Another eight to twelve percent under the outer layer will have a loss of color, develop an unpleasant odor and have a high drop in relative feed value, protein content, and palatability. (These are part of standard tests to determine quality for hay sales.)
Understanding the need to eliminate this loss brought about the quest for a positive solution.
I, the inventor of this machine, have done experimental hay covering work with large hay bales on my own farm for over ten years. For the last eight and one half years I have been using a spear type turning device mounted on the rear lift of a farm tractor. This process requires a two person operation, as the bale must be penetrated and raised to turn position. Rolled plastic material must be hand secured to the bale twine wrap. Bale is then turned with tractor power by manual control to advance the plastic cover to give overlap on each rotation and finally to manually cut the plastic film and return plastic roll to start position. Bale is then lowered and you proceed to the next bale.
Many farmers are very eager to wrap bales, however they hesitate to accept this concept because of labor and time consumed.
Thus, the development of this invention that uniformly wraps bales with the push of an electrical switch by the operator of the tractor without leaving his or her control position. This greatly exceeds the performance of any previous machines that have been made, as safety, ease of operation, cost, uniformity and speed are the results of a large degree of automation.